1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement in golf clubs and more particularly to an improvement in a putter head.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are several important factors that a golfer must consider in making a putt. First, he must take care to strike the ball with the club face at the center of percussion for the head; otherwise, force vectors may be imparted at a direction other then the desired line of roll of the ball. Similarly, he must maintain the horizontal plane of the club parallel with the surface of the green to prevent departures from the line of roll. The golfer must also be able to accurately align the club face at right angles to the direction in which he wishes the ball to go. While these requirements are basically under the control of the golfer, there are requirements in the design of the club which also may influence the path of the ball and over which the golfer has little or no control. For example, the club and club head must be properly balanced so that the dynamic forces during a swing do not cause a change in the alignment of the club face with respect to the ball and the line of roll. Also, the drag of the grass during the stroke on the sole plate of the club can, on occasions, introduce changes in the alignment of the club just prior to striking the ball.
There have been a number of designs of putter heads which have attempted to solve some of these problems, but none are known which assist the golfer in overcoming all of the above mentioned problems. U.S. Pat. No. 2,478,468 to Drake has approached the balance problem by offsetting the head with respect to the shaft and has attempted to improve the scuffing problem by the curvature of the sole plate portion. Handzlik, Jr. in U.S. Pat. No. 2,991,082 has provided a putter head construction having a raised portion adjacent the so-called "sweet spot" of the face of the club to indicate to the golfer the proper point for striking the ball. Another alignment effort was made by Hodge in U.S. Pat. No. 3,486,755 in which the putter was to be used in the manner of a shuffleboard club. However, none of the referenced patents, or of clubs known in the prior art, have provided any assistance to the golfer to maintain the horizontal plane of the club parallel with the surface of the green. Thus, he must depend entirely on judgment and experience with respect to this requirement for accurate putting.